Suppose two men at cards
with nothing to wager save their lives. Who has not heard such a
tale? A turn of the card. The whole universe for such a player has
labored clanking to his moment which will tell if he is to die at
that man’s hand or that man at his. What more certain
validation of a man’s worth could there be? This enhancement
of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the
notion of fate. The selection of one man over another is a
preference absolute and irrevocable and it is a dull man indeed who
could reckon so profound a decision without agency or significance
either one. In such games as have for their stake the annihilation
of the defeated the decisions are quite clear. This man holding
this particular arrangement of cards in his hand is thereby removed
from existence. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once
the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is
the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s
will and the will of another within that larger will which because
it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate
game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.
War is god.
Cormac McCarthy, "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening
Redness in the West"
The Bottrel Cemetery is located ½ mile south of the Bottrel
General Store, on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley. Originally
named the Westbrook Cemetery, it was developed at the turn of the
century. The land was transferred to the Municipality in 1963, from
the Estate of the late John T. Boucher. The Cemetery holds many
family members of the early settlers from the area. Of historical
interest, there is a Civil War Veteran interred in the Cemetery.
Point of Interest: N 51 24.153 W 114 29.650 Barnett, William
Hatcher, 11th Virginia Infantry, Company F. Born in Montgomery
County, Virginia, December 6, 1843. Died July 17, 1933. Buried in
Bottrell/Westbrook Cemetery, Bottrell, Alberta. Verified as the
last survivor of Pickett's Charge.
